Mt. Weather with Ladies

Well after the snow and mud fun from Leesburg, we thought the weather was a changin'. Well kinda. I was supposed to do Skyline Drive with Ryan and get some good sustained hill work. We are on our way to Skyline Dr. in Ft. Royal and about 20 miles out there was a lot of ice on the trees. We then called Anna to let her know not to come to Skyline cause there was a sheet of ice on the road. We decided to back track to Marshall and do the Blue Ridger. We met Anna and her fast friend Maggie. We started off and the ladies are doing a good cruisin' pace, and Ryan and I were just drafting off them :-) We had a pretty good pace, that would get split up on the climbs. We did the rest stop and talked to a man that was the first on the scene when a passenger plane hit Mt. Weather. Once we got to the climb I got the bit between my teeth and pushed it. Maggie was riding her own pace which means she decided to be slower. Ryan was also not trying to push it. I waited for Anna at Rt. 50 to make sure she made the turn. Once we took the left up Mt. Weather, we saw the ice trees again. Ryan and Maggie were up ahead, and I did the stupid thing and tried to catch them. I had not been up Mt. Weather in a couple of years, and I think this was the first time I did it with a compact. Well it was the fastest I have done it, so it means I am stronger than years past. Once on the ridge line we were dealing with falling ice and wet roads. I had not dressed quite warm enough, and I think that got me sick this week. We got down off the mountain, and luckily the sun was out and it was warmer. We did Naked Mountain, and thankfully no ice so it was a lot warmer. We then did the last ten miles with Ryan and I going up a little ahead of the ladies. When we got to the parking lot, my quads were tired, first ride of the year to have that feeling. Anna and Maggie are pretty hard-core cause they went and did another hour or so to "spin it out" Well I was done! Thinking I will ride more with Anna since she is one of the few on the team that actually gets out of the city pretty regularly.

Blue Riger Feb. 2008